Nab Boss Takes A Trim - To $8.5m

Sydney Morning Herald

Tuesday November 18, 2008

Danny John

JOHN STEWART finished his last full year as National Australia Bank's chief executive by taking a small pay cut to his overall remuneration package after the group's 10 per cent fall in cash profits to $3.9 billion.

But Mr Stewart, who will leave NAB at the end of December after almost five years in charge, still received $8.51 million for the year to September 30, of which $4.45 million was made up of his basic salary, a cash bonus and $190,000 in additional perks.

His overall amount was $300,000 less than for the previous year when NAB's cash earnings cracked the $4.4 billion mark - a record result.

Its most recent performance, though, has been hit by bad debt charges of $800 million caused by its exposure to complex financial instruments linked to toxic US subprime housing loan investments. The write-downs took the gloss off Mr Stewart's final year as head of the bank, although he wasn't the biggest loser financially among members of his senior executive team.

John Hooper, the executive in charge of its institutional and corporate banking arm, nabCapital, saw his 2007 payment drop by more than $1 million from $3.19 million to $2.13 million.

While Mr Hooper's basic salary went up by $170,000 to just over $1 million annually, he lost his entire short-term cash bonus - worth $1.3 million the year before - as a consequence of the bad debt write-downs chalked up by his division.

By contrast, the major beneficiary was NAB's Australian banking divisional chief, Ahmed Fahour, whose package climbed $500,000 to $7.3 million, thanks to profit improvements.

Details of various salary and bonus payments made by NAB were disclosed in the bank's annual report, released yesterday. It showed the 10 top executives received $40.3 million last year, up from $36.8 million.

However, two of them had received promotions and a third was a new appointee. If their additional amounts were excluded, the total increase in monetary terms for the group was a more modest 3.9 per cent.

Next month shareholders will be asked to approve the granting of $2.5 million of a long-term right to shares to Mr Stewart's successor, Cameron Clyne.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

Back to News Index | Back to Home